Civil Rights
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
q2K BHP
Black History Portal
THE BHP WIRE —
HIDDEN TRUTHS
What's New!
Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
Mansa Musa was the ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa. Details recorded here should be sourced; unknown information is left blank.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
 | This article contains promotional content. (July 2022) |
| Phunware Inc. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Public |
| Industry | Mobile software Generative AI Digital advertising |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Headquarters | Austin, Texas Irvine, California San Diego, California Miami, Florida |
| Key people | Jeremy Krol (CEO)[1] Chris Olive EVP General Counsel |
| Products | PhunWare PhunToken |
| Revenue | 19,150,000 United States dollar (2019)  |
Number of employees | 50+ |
| Website | phunware.com phuntoken.com |
Phunware Inc. is a publicly traded enterprise software company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2009, Phunware builds cloud-based platforms which are intended to build user engagement for marketing and public-relations purposes. Its services include mobile app development, location-based services, digital advertising, and generative AI tools.
Phunware is listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol PHUN. The company's CEO is Jeremy Krol, who joined in 2025 and has focused on re-aligning the business around high-growth SaaS and AI.
Phunware has raised over $100 million since inception and completed its public listing in 2018 via a merger with Stellar Acquisition III, a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
Phunware is also involved in voter engagement, including tracking potential voters' locations, and offers a fundraising platform used by political campaigns and advocacy groups, for which the company has faced public scrutiny. In 2020, Phunware was the fifth largest advertising technology company in politics. In November of that year, it had more than 940 million monthly unique active devices and had 5 billion daily transactions, and had raised more than $120 million in capital since its founding.[2]
In 2014, as part of a $30 million expansion, Phunware acquired Digby Mobile Commerce, also based in Austin. The acquisition included Dibgy's subsidiary Movaya, based in Seattle and Chengdu.[3]
In 2017, the company acquired Odyssey, Simplikate, Digby, Tapit! ($23 million acquisition in 2017) and GoTV. [citation needed]
Their customers in 2019 included Fox Networks Group, HID Global, and MD Anderson.[4] Previous customers included Warner Brothers, NASCAR, NFL, and NBC Sports. Applications that send data to Phunware servers include the campus map for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and GunDealio, an app for gun sales from Gun Talk Media.[5] Phunware's location tracking was used, for instance, to target 2018 Democratic ads at participants in the anti-Trump 2017 Women's March in DC.[5][6][7][8][9]
During the 2020 US Presidential election, Phunware provided campaign data, including "users' daily digital trail", to the Trump reelection campaign, through a $3 million contract awarded by Brad Parscale's American Made Media Consultants.[citation needed] They also built the Trump–Pence reelection app for the campaign in November 2019.[5][6][10][8][11]
Phunware performed a reverse merger with Stellar Acquisitions III, a special-purpose acquisition company (or shell company) in December 2018, placing Phunware on the NASDAQ exchange.[2][12][13]
The company's non-GAAP adjusted net revenues were stated at $19 million in 2019, down from $22.5 million in 2018. The GAAP gross revenue was $19 million in 2019 and $30.8 million in 2018. Fox Networks Group was 50% of the company's 2019 sales, up from 42% the previous year. Phunware's active Fox contract was completed in 2019, meaning the sales could go to zero. The company had 93 employees at the end of 2019, after reducing their workforce by 44. In March 2020 the company furloughed 37 people.[4][14]
In 2020, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger served on their advisory board.[15]
On April 10, 2020, Phunware received $6.1 million in federally backed small business loans from JP Morgan Chase as part of the Paycheck Protection Program. The company received scrutiny over this loan for its connections to Donald Trump and Fox News.[16][17] In defense, Crowder (COO) said companies that didn't apply "aren't doing their fiduciary duty", and said "Banks aren't loaning to unprofitable tech companies. There is no access to capital".[10][18]
On April 17, 2020, the company received a delisting notice from NASDAQ due to the stock trading below a dollar. However, the company's shares increased to above a dollar before the stock was delisted.[19][20]
On October 19, 2021, Phunware acquired computer system provider Lyte technology for $10.98 million to support their blockchain research and development efforts.[21]
In October 2024, Phunware announced that it had developed a new generative AI platform intended to simplify mobile app design and content creation and “drastically reduce” the need for expensive and time-consuming design and development investments. The company’s new AI-powered software-as-a-service platform is said to launch in mid-2025.[22]
In November 2024, Phunware partnered with Parscale and his company, Campaign Nucleus, acquiring a controlling share of the voter engagement app "MyCanvass." This agreement was intended to strengthen Phunware's capabilities in providing voter engagement services to clients for advocacy, political campaigns, and fundraising initiatives.[23] MyCanvass, along with the Generative AI platform will be able to personalize experiences based on demographic information, behavioral information and location.[24]
On September 26, 2017, Phunware sued Uber Technologies for $3 million in unpaid services, accusing the ride-sharing company of failing to pay its invoices, court records from The Superior Court of California show. In response, Uber filed suit against Phunware, alleging the software company committed fraud by, among other things, allowing ads for the ride-sharing app to show up on unauthorized third party sites. Former employees said the startup looked for "new ways to diversify its revenue stream."[25]
An October 9, 2020, SEC settlement shows that Phunware agreed to pay a total of $6 million—$4.5 million going to Uber—over claims of fraudulent advertising.[26]
Phunware was paid nearly $3 million in revenue from the Trump re-election campaign in 2020, or roughly 15% of its nearly $20 million in total sales, according to a filing with the SEC. In 2018, 66% of its $31 million revenue at the time came from work for client Fox Networks.
In company documents from 2017, Phunware, a Texas-based technology company, describes the race to collect location data to target voters as a "gold rush," suggesting that "as soon as the first few political campaigns realize the value of mobile ad targeting for voter engagement, the floodgates will open. Which campaigns will get there first and strike it rich?"
{{cite web}}: |last2= has generic name (help)
{{cite news}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Phunware Inc. is a publicly traded enterprise software company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2009, Phunware builds cloud-based platforms which are intended to build user engagement for marketing and public-relations purposes. Its services include mobile app development, location-based services, digital advertising, and generative AI tools. Phunware is listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol PHUN. The company's CEO is Jeremy Krol, who joined in 2025 and has focused on re-aligning the business around high-growth SaaS and AI. Phunware has raised over $100 million since inception and completed its public listing in 2018 via a merger with Stellar Acquisition III, a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Phunware is also involved in voter engagement, including tracking potential voters' locations, and offers a fundraising platform used by political campaigns and advocacy groups, for which the company has faced public scrutiny. In 2020, Phunware was the fifth largest advertising technology company in politics. In November of that year, it had more than 940 million monthly unique active devices and had 5 billion daily transactions, and had raised more than $120 million in capital since its founding.
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is the largest and most valuable wrestling promotion in the world and has expanded beyond professional wrestling into film, football, and other business ventures, including the licensing of its intellectual property to other companies to produce video games and action figures. WWE is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of the WME Group. As in other professional wrestling promotions, WWE does not promote a legitimate sporting contest but rather entertainment-based, athletic mock combat performance theater, featuring storyline-driven, scripted, and partially choreographed matches. However, matches often include moves that put performers at risk of serious injury or death if not performed correctly. The predetermined nature of professional wrestling was publicly acknowledged by WWE in 1989 to avoid regulation by athletic commissions. WWE markets its product as "sports entertainment", acknowledging professional wrestling's roots in competitive sport and dramatic theater. The promotion traces its origins to the formation of the Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC), founded in 1953 by Jess McMahon or Vincent J. McMahon as a Northeastern territory of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Following a booking dispute, CWC left the NWA and rebranded to the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in April 1963. The promotion shortened its name to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. In 1982, Titan Sports, founded by Vincent K. McMahon (commonly known as Vince McMahon) and Linda McMahon, acquired the company from Vincent J. McMahon. Under Vince's leadership, the WWF expanded from a regional promotion into the dominant force in professional wrestling and a global entertainment company. The company played a major role in bringing professional wrestling into mainstream popular culture through periods such as the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection, the Attitude Era, and the development of WrestleMania into the world's largest annual professional wrestling event. Following a trademark dispute with the World Wildlife Fund, the WWF was renamed World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2002, and adopted the initials WWE as its primary branding in 2011. WWE's main roster is divided into two touring brands, Raw and SmackDown. Its developmental brands, NXT and Evolve, are based at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. The promotion's programming is available in more than one billion homes worldwide in 30 languages and its global headquarters is located in Stamford, Connecticut, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai, and Munich. In January 2023, WWE began to explore a sale of the company, amid allegations of misconduct involving Vince McMahon, which had previously led to his resignation as chairman and CEO. In September 2023, WWE merged with Zuffa, the parent company of mixed martial arts promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), to form TKO Group Holdings, publicly traded company majority-owned by Endeavor Group Holdings. McMahon initially served as executive chairman of TKO, and WWE's legal name was changed to World Wrestling Entertainment, LLC. In 2024, McMahon resigned from TKO amid a sex trafficking scandal and was replaced as executive chairman by Ari Emanuel.
Lawrence Mark Sanger (born July 16, 1968) is an American Internet project developer and philosopher who co-founded Wikipedia with Jimmy Wales. Sanger coined the name Wikipedia and provided initial drafts for many of its early guidelines, including the "Neutral point of view" and "Ignore all rules" policies. Prior to Wikipedia, he was the editor-in-chief of Nupedia, an online encyclopedia which was the predecessor of Wikipedia. He later worked on other encyclopedic projects, including the Encyclopedia of Earth, Citizendium, Everipedia, and Ballotpedia. Sanger's other interests include theology and philosophy such as epistemology, early modern philosophy, and ethics. He taught philosophy at Ohio State University. Sanger joined the online encyclopedia Nupedia as editor-in-chief in 2000. Disappointed with the slow progress of Nupedia, Sanger proposed using a wiki to solicit and receive articles to put through Nupedia's peer-review process; this change led to the development and launch of Wikipedia in 2001. Sanger continued to serve as Nupedia's editor-in-chief and as an active contributor to Wikipedia in its first year, but he was laid off and left the project in March 2002. Sanger's status as a co-founder of Wikipedia has been questioned by Wales, but is generally accepted. Since Sanger's departure from Wikipedia, he has been critical of the project, describing it in 2007 as being "broken beyond repair". He has argued that Wikipedia lacks credibility and accuracy because, in his view, it had a lack of respect for expertise. Since 2020, he has accused Wikipedia of having a left-wing ideological bias in its articles. Sanger's effort to change Wikipedia was received negatively by editors of the English Wikipedia. In June 2026, he was banned from editing the English Wikipedia after the community determined that he had violated its "canvassing", or brigading, rule by publicizing an internal community discussion on his proposed "WikiProject Intellectual Diversity" to his 93,000 followers on X. The community also concluded that he was "not here" to constructively build the encyclopedia. In 2006, Sanger founded Citizendium to compete with Wikipedia; in 2010, he stepped down as editor-in-chief, and in 2020, he left Citizendium entirely. In 2017, he joined Everipedia as chief information officer (CIO). He resigned in 2019, to establish the Knowledge Standards Foundation and the "encyclosphere". As of 2023, Sanger was serving as the executive director of the Knowledge Standards Foundation.
Blythe Sally Jess Masters (née Levett; born 22 March 1969) is a British private equity, financial services, and fintech executive. She is a former executive at JPMorganChase, where she was widely credited for developing the credit default swap as a financial instrument. She is a founding partner of fintech-focused private equity firm, Motive Partners, Group CEO of FNZ, an advisory board member of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, an independent board member of SymphonyAI, and holds the position of Non-Executive Chair at J.P. Morgan Securities in the UK. she is the former CEO of special-purpose acquisition company, Motive Capital Corp, and a former board member of Credit Suisse Group.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Madam C.J. Walker